Book Review: The Pearl by John Steinbeck

Book Title: The Pearl
Author: John Steinbeck
Genre: Parable
Form: Novelette / Novella
Language: English
ISBN-10: 014017737X
ISBN-13: 978-0140177374
Publisher: Penguin Books
Where To Buy: National Bookstore (Philippine) | Price: ₱279.00
Comment: I just borrowed this book from my niece.

Front Cover of The Pearl by John Steinbeck - Penguin Books

Back Cover of The Pearl by John Steinbeck - Penguin Books

The setting of the story is in a poverty area on a land's seashore, I think, in a shore around Gulf of somewhere in Mexico. The main characters are Kino (the one who found the pearl of the world), Juana (Kino's wife) and Coyotito (their son).

In the story, I see that there's a barrier between rich people & the poor. I learned, In the time setting of the story, being married & being baptized would require a sum of money and getting a healthcare / a doctor would also require a sum of money. People, their neighborhood have the culture of being a gossiper where story crawls to neighbor-to-neighbors, reaching beggars to churches, offices, tantamount to the whole city.

On the last part of the story, I didn't know first exactly how *spoiler alert* their son died. It made me wonder if it was because of stray bullet fired by the hunters to scared the coyotes off who they thought was crying. Juana and her son were left to the cave. How the bullet got inside? The last part didn't clearly tell how it happens because the conclusion of the story is they arrived back in the city, with Juana having her son dead and Kino having a rifle on his back. Kino decided to throw the pearl back to the sea because it brought pain & disaster to them. And i think it's already useless too because his dream for his Coyotito will never happen.

I searched for more information about the ending of the story and it confirms the cause of death was because of a stray bullet fired by the hunters. ( source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pearl_(novel) )

What i learned after reading the story - having a valuable item or something great about yourself, there's an accompanied envious feeling on someone's end. Envy is a sin according to Christian ethics. For me, envy is a sin if and only if you are doing something bad due great desire. In my opinion, I couldn't say it's a sin if you're doing something good or something with an effort to get what you're envying about (like working hard to buy what you desire). Envy is a sin if you're doing something bad like stealing or doing something wrong to the person just to get what you desire. Simple, Isn't it? Well, speak of 7 Deadly Sins, the story may also relate to other three deadly sins called Greed, Wrath & Pride.

My review ends here.

Thank you for reading :-)

By the way, If you'd like to buy the book, you may click the links below by Amazon.com:

You will like it.

Thanks!